Elevated floors have been gaining widespread usage and prominence in view of the wide proliferation of computers installed and used in buildings. These elevated floors are sometimes called “computer floors”. Generally speaking such elevated floors are designed to be supported on pedestals at the corners of the elevated floor so as to present an access space between the elevated floor and the floor structure that can be used to run electrical cabling, computer lines, air conditioning or other heating systems.
These computer floors comprise floor panels and are often provided with some form of floor covering laminated to the upper surface thereof to provide a finished, exposed floor surface. These floor coverings may be carpeted, include vinyl asbestos tile (VAT) or high-pressure laminate usually referred to as HPL. When the floor covering is laminated to the upper surface of the floor panel an attractive floor appearance is provided with the plurality of abutting floor panels defining the floor where individual panels can be removed.
Existing technology shows floor panels having a black border or coloured border disposed around the perimeter of the access floor panel so as to generally:
(a) offer an attractive appearance
(b) mask any gaps or joints
(c) prevent chipping or exposure of the chipping of the edges.
Floor panels have heretofore been designed that include applying plastic shapes around the perimeter of the trim as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,998. These trims tend to become loose and fall off and become a maintenance problem.
Other prior art devices comprise routing and exposing an inner core of black paper to construct a trimmed appearance. Generally the trim is disposed lower than the surface of the decorative laminate an example of which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,491. Disadvantages experienced from such routed edges stem from the paper core left exposed and unprotected against cleaners and moisture, and the recessed groove acts as a dirt and moisture trap.
Other prior art methods comprise burning the top clear melamine surface and applying a ultra violet cured paint to simulate a black border or trim. However, it is generally difficult to control the burning process accurately and accordingly such process sometimes burn through the decorative layer and sometimes does not totally remove the clear protective layer resulting in the applied paint wearing off. Other prior art methods include laminating the patterned wear surface to a substrate of black or coloured plastic to make a layered system where the substrate becomes the border or trim.
Furthermore patterned tiles have also heretofore been known as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,670,288 and 6,413,618.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved floor tile having a patterned edge and an improved method of producing same.